Saturday, 30 November 2019

Great advert for the non-league game

Saturday 30 November 2019, Tiptree Heath 2 Stanway Pegasus 1 - Essex and Suffolk Border League, Premier Division , Tolleshunt Knights Village Hall (Top Road)



Second v first, 3 goals,  a missed penalty some great football, and  a red card - other than being bloody cold it was a fantastic advert for the non-league game in Essex.




Wednesday, 27 November 2019

Back to basics

Tuesday 26 November 2019, Southend United Under 23s 2 Leyton Orient Under 23s 0 - Central League, Cup, Boots and Laces



How the other half live, must be an eye opener for our young players when they go on loan.

Easy win for Southend but the 29 supporters were often distracted as the 1st Team were training on the pitch next door with Sol, Andy Cole and Herman present.

Sunday, 24 November 2019

League One football, League One Refs!

Saturday 23 November 2019, Ipswich Town 2 Blackpool 2 - League One, Portman Road

Was it a penalty? Was the ball over the line? How long to make a substitution? League One football means you get League One Officials!

A good reason to remember.

Tuesday 19 November 2019, Oxhey Jets 2 Harefield United 4 - Spartan South Midlands League, Premier Division, Boundary Stadium


For many of us Remembrance Day is the most important of the year, and at first when the General Public started to pay more attention to the day, it felt right and football and other sports also joined in but in some cases it has gone slightly OTT and the message has been lost.



This year we even had one club dress up as a poppy! 

That is not to say that some clubs do not get it right, Oxhey Jets are one such club, they have a link up to the local RAF base however it is the game nearest to the 20th November that Oxhey mark remembrance - because on the 20th November , 8 years ago one of their former players was killed in action in Afghanistan.



They even put a small tribute to Thomas Lake in the programme. as a former soldier I am very glad that I had chosen Oxhey for my mid-week football fix - and that I was able to join them in remembering a former soldier.


Football wise it was a tough competitive local derby that the visitors always had the upper hand, a good game for the neutral. the ground slightly ramshackle but loved it!








Saturday, 16 November 2019

A cup win !! Shock!!

Saturday 16 November 2019, Ipswich Town Under 18s 2 Exeter City Under 18s 1 - FA Youth Cup, 2nd Round, Portman Road

We won this game and we dominated the first half however we sat back in the second half and in the end made hard work of what should have been a convincing win.

Tuesday, 12 November 2019

Another cup game cock up

Tuesday 12 November 2019, Colchester Utd 1 Ipswich Town 0 - Leasing.Com Trophy Group game, Jobserve Stadium

Sunday, 10 November 2019

See you in Montevideo ( or in fact Paraćin - Serbia)

 
On the Serbian groundhop Seven we visited the  'Green Hell' in Paraćin , home of Serbian 4th division team - FK Jedinstvo Paraćin, (Gradski stadium) we were told it had been used in a Serb film about the 1930 World Cup and that is the reason the stands were painted the blue from the Uruguayan flag.
 

The Serbs made a film about qualifying for 1930 World Cup in 2010,  - that was filmed mainly in Tenerife , the film was well acclaimed - " Montevideo, God Bless You!"
 

In 2014 a sequel was made, a comedy this time - "See you in Montevideo"  and some of the match scenes were filmed in Paraćin.